Temprate Fruits (1+1)

PROPAGATION AND CANOPY MANAGEMENT

Rootstocks and Propagation

• Seedlings of various cultivars like Burkett, Nellis and western Schley are generally used as rootstock for pecan nut as there is no clonal rootstock.
• The bitter pecan (C. aquatica) is adapted to poor drainage, flooding condition and low pH but gives low yield.
• For raising the seedlings rootstocks, the seeds are stratified at 4oC for 70-90 days.
• Cold stratification of the nuts for 70 days followed by soaking in GA3 (500 ppm) for 48 hrs gives good germination and subsequent seedling growth.
• After stratification, the nuts are sown in well prepared nursery beds at a spacing of 15 cm from seed to seed and 20 cm apart in rows.
• After sowing of seeds, the nursery beds are mulched with 10 cm dry grass and light irrigation is given.
• As the seeds start germinating, mulch is removed and proper weeding, irrigation and hoeing is done at regular intervals so that seedlings attain graftable and buddable size in a year.
• Pecan is commercially propagated by budding and grafting onto seedling rootstocks
• The seedling rootstocks are budded with patch and annular method in July and tongue grafted in Feb- March.

Planting:

• The best time of planting for pecan is dormant season, late winter or early spring just before bud swelling..
• In flat land, the pecan nut is planted in square system at 10-12 m spacing.
• In sloppy lands contour and terrace layout of planting system are adopted.
• The plant spacing depends on the cultivar and fertility of the soil.
• The distance can be reduced to 8-10 m on soil with low fertility.

Training and Pruning:

• The training in pecan begins with the planting when 1/3 of the top is removed and branches are allowed to emerge as high as 1-1.5 m from the ground level.
• The pecan trees are trained in central leader system and from the second year onwards the subsequent branches should be spaced spirally at 30-35 cm from one above the other.
• As the pecan trees advance in age, they become larger and get crowded making pruning, spraying and harvesting operations difficult.
• Pruning of pecan nut trees is, therefore, desirable but is often neglected.. Once the framework is established very little pruning is done mature trees . Dried and broken and over crowding branches are removed.